Tapas Tips: Albacore-Stuffed Piquillo Peppers

I was torn. Vacillating. Perplexed, even. My brother was making his first paella on the grill for a group of friends and he'd asked the invited guests to contribute a tapa to serve before the main event.

Bruce working the grill like a boss.

Like visions of sugarplums, the many possibilities danced through my head. Mussels or clams with chorizo in a broth of rosé? A classic potato-and-egg tortilla Española? Maybe deviled eggs with anchovy-stuffed green olives? Or how about those fab albacore-and-caper-filled piquillo peppers I'd made for a previous gathering at his place?

See what I mean? A veritable embarrassment of riches to choose from, especially at the height of the summer harvest season. What to do?

A masterpiece!

That's when I happened to read my friend Cynthia Nims's ode to her favorite egg salad, a mint-and-egg combo with green onion, olive oil and lemon juice as the only additions. So I thought to myself, what about combining flaked albacore with chopped hard-boiled egg, the aforementioned green olives, and throw in some green onion and a drizzle of olive oil, then using that to fill what are rapidly becoming my favorite roasted peppers? (Piquillos, in case I lost you back there.)

The result? Turned out to be what may be, at least until I try Cynthia's version, my new favorite egg salad!

Piquillo Peppers Stuffed With Albacore, Hardboiled Eggs and Olives

12 roasted piquillo peppers, drained and patted dry
6.5 oz. albacore tuna (I like the no-salt, line-caught Sweet Creek Foods in its own juice)
10 anchovy-stuffed Spanish olives, finely chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. slivered green onions (green part only)
2 cloves garlic (pressed in a garlic press or smashed with a knife and minced)
2 Tbsp. parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt to taste

Flake the tuna and add its juice in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Add more olive oil to help bind it if necessary. Add salt to taste. Using a fork, fill peppers with the tuna mixture but don't overstuff.

This makes a great sandwich, too, if you have leftover filling. Just mix in some finely chopped piquillo peppers, a dollop of mayonnaise to moisten, and enjoy!

Check out this recipe for a mildly piquant piquillo pepper sauce. And here's my recipe for an easy paella on the grill.

Spanish Marinated Zucchini, The Perfect Small Plate

Contributor Jim Dixon of Real Good Food can take the most maligned of summer vegetables, say, for instance, the zucchini, and turn it into something extraordinary, a treat that you would happily set in front of the most hoity-toity of guests. Though we don't have many of those, fortunately, I'll still be setting this out as a tapa on the table this summer.

Spanish Marinated Zucchini

The Moors ruled the Iberian peninsula for 700 years, and their legacy includes dishes like this. The Spanish word escabeche refers to foods cooked and marinated in vinegar; the word itself derives from the Arabic al-sikbaj, a sweet and sour meat dish. But even without the interesting culinary history, escabeches are delicious.

Start with relatively thick slices of zucchini or any summer squash, about half-inch, so they don't get too soft. I like to split long squash lengthwise, then slice. Cook them in fairly hot extra virgin olive oil until they're lightly browned, about 5 minutes. While the squash cook, toast a couple of tablespoons of cumin seeds in a dry skillet for a few minutes, until they're aromatic and just starting to brown.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked squash to a bowl; you want some of the oil but not all of it. Add some chopped garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary, and a good sprinkling of Katz Trio red wine vinegar [or any good quality red wine vinegar]. Toss with flor de sal and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Breakfast for Dinner: Craving Spring Things

Let's face it: Spring is all about sex. Call it reproduction, fertility or, to use Anthony Boutard's favorite word, fecundity, nature is having a field day making more of itself. Hens start laying eggs again, little green things (weeds included) are popping out of the bare earth and farmers are finally able to get out in their fields to plant crops, muddy and clumpy though those fields may be.

Chorizo and spring vegetables…yum!

I've been longing for spring things lately, especially after a winter diet of root vegetables and winter greens, and my freezer is looking mighty empty since we've cleaned out most of the roasted tomatoes, lamb, pork and beef I crammed into it last fall. Luckily the farmers' market season is roaring back to life now, so it's easy to satisfy my craving for these first sweet sproutings.

Homemade sourdough cubes, natch!

With that in mind, a recent article by David Tanis in the Dining section of the New York Times about a Spanish dish of eggs and spring vegetables piqued my interest. Called revueltos or huevos revueltos, it basically means scrambled eggs and usually includes vegetables of one sort or another. Often found at tapas bars or served as a light supper dish—my fondness for these "breakfast for dinner" dishes is longstanding—the one that Tanis shared featured asparagus and bread cubes toasted in olive oil and garlic.

I happened to have picked up a couple of bunches of asparagus at the mid-week Shemanski market from Leslie at Viridian Farms, and had about half a bunch of green garlic left over from an earlier trip. Dinner was still an open question and I'd just replenished the egg supply, so I decided to follow the seeming synchronicity and give the dish a whirl.

Needless to say, and anyone who's made a frittata, quiche or even an omelet can attest, it was simple, quick and delicious. Perfect for a spring supper!

Revueltos (Scrambled Eggs) with Green Garlic and Asparagus

Adapted from David Tanis

Olive oil

2 peeled garlic cloves

2 c. dried bread cubes, cut in 1/2" cubes

3 oz. diced Spanish chorizo*

1 bunch asparagus, about 1 1/2 lbs., sliced in 1" lengths

1/2 bunch green garlic, sliced in 1" lengths

8 large eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp. Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika)

Salt to taste

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large non-stick skillet (or well-seasoned cast iron pan) over medium-high heat. Add peeled garlic cloves and let them sizzle until lightly browned, then remove. Add bread cubes, lower heat to medium and gently fry until lightly browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove bread and set aside to cool.

Add chorizo and fry lightly. Add asparagus and green garlic and stir-fry until cooked through but firm, 3 to 4 minutes. 

Reduce heat to low. Add pimentón to eggs. Pour eggs into skillet with vegetables and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, just until soft and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Top with bread cubes and serve in the skillet, or transfer eggs to large serving bowl, topping with bread cubes, and serve immediately.

This would also make a great breakfast or brunch dish.

* I used my friend Paul Bertolli's Fra'Mani Chorizo Pork Sausage.

In a Hurry? Pick a Pepper!

The clock is ticking. You're not only on deadline (whether with work or kids or just life), you've committed to taking an appetizer to a dinner party and some other slacker picked the busy person's easy out, the cheese plate.

Rather than hitting the store on the way there and picking up the bachelor's answer to any pot luck, chips and whatever salsa you can grab, the next time you're at the store get a little jar of Spanish piquillo peppers and you'll be set to impress. In all of fifteen minutes you'll have an appetizer that looks fabulous, tastes terrific and may just change your reputation as the chips and salsa guy.

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers

1 7.5 oz. jar Spanish piquillo peppers (I like Matiz brand)
6-7 oz. can tuna (if you can find Ortiz brand from Spain that's packed in olive oil, great, but albacore will do)
1/4 c. capers
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise or homemade aioli
1/4 tsp. lemon zest

In small bowl mix tuna, capers, olive oil, mayonnaise and lemon zest, breaking up chunks of tuna. Carefully remove peppers from jar and drain briefly on paper towels. Hold one pepper in your hand and open like a cone. Fill with tuna mixture, arrange on plate and prepare to wow your friends.

Gaga Over Lolo

I have to admit it was one of those ambivalent moments, kind of like arriving at the the Hundred Steps in Mt. Tabor Park and hearing Kristin say, "OK, ladies, let's go up!" I know it's going to be hard, but when I get to the top it'll feel so good. So when I heard that the tony Pearl district restaurant Giorgio's was opening a tapas bar, called Lolo, on Alberta, I felt a mixture of excitement ("Oboy! The food could be really great!") and dread ("Oh no! There goes the neighborhood.").

But I'm here to tell you that everything's copacetic. The low-key vibe of Alberta has not been disturbed by excessively flashy decor or Hummers prowling the avenue for parking. If anything, the large windows of the turn-of-the-century brick facade and the simple tables and chairs cohabit perfectly with the über-funky-but-hip DIY crowd that claims the street as theirs.

The menu follows through on this understated approach with three sections to choose from. Tapas ($3-8) are small plates that a party of four can share, allowing you to sample several of these appetizers without breaking the bank. The Raciones, or larger plates ($8-16), like the tapas, can also be shared depending on your group's inclinations, or ordered as entrées. Then there are the Postres, or desserts ($7), small bits of sweetness to end the meal.

We chose to go the shared route so we could taste a wider variety of what Lolo had to offer and, to avoid fights, we followed the classic rule requiring that the one who divides the food gets last choice. With that agreement in place, we proceeded to mow our way through our choices, beginning with the cod cakes in a pool of bottarga mayo (left). You can see that I barely had time to snap a picture before it was decimated. These little croquettes were so fresh and full of the taste of salt cod that they caused the salt cod fritters at Toro Bravo, which I'd raved, to pale in comparison.

The spot prawns with white beans in a paprika sauce (right) were mind-bogglingly tender and spicy and every last drop of the sauce was sopped up before we let the server remove the bowl. And their grilled summer squash salad with wild lobster mushrooms on a splash of romesco (left, below) was another flavor romp, with the smoky vegetables playing off the fresh greens and deep tomato of the romesco.

We also tried the braised chicken with saffron, spinach, pine nuts and currants, and found it just so-so. But the meal ended on a happy note with an unctuous caramel flan with fresh figs that had the parties' eyes rolling back in their heads. There were cocktails from the bar in the corner, and a wine list that was well-selected and priced. We went through two bottles of a Spanish wine made from the tinto de toro grape, a 2005 Liberalia Castilla y Leon, priced at $26 and a fantastic match with the food.

The service was attentive and friendly, our waitress chatting in Spanish with two of our party who are fluent speakers, and even when the place got busy (did I mention it was Last Thursday?) she was right there refilling glasses and replacing plates and silverware as the food rolled out. The only fly in this lovely ointment was the sound level, which was high when the restaurant was only half full and reached deafening by the time we left. I don't mean to be a fuddy-duddy who needs her hearing aids turned up, but even our 20-something waitress offered an unsolicited apology and said it was a problem that they were working on.

And I'll cut them lots of slack considering they've only been open a week thus far. This kind of food and service coming out of a place this early on only bodes well for the future. Needless to say, we'll be back.

Details: Lolo, 2940 NE Alberta. Phone 503-288-3400.